Fringe Fever, Culture Blues

We pull apart Melbourne Fringe with equal parts affection and frustration while admitting we’re still a bit wobbly from the last episode. Culture feels splintered, audiences feel cautious, and we ask whether Fringe should be stranger while stand‑up finds its own lane.

• Melbourne Fringe as identity crisis point
• hypnosis shows, improv energy, and audience buy‑in
• culture reset after lockdowns and a lost zeitgeist
• competing with the past and novelty fatigue
• Warhammer ResinGate as a metaphor for diminishing returns
• MC choices, safety cues, and setting the room’s world
• stand‑up vs clown, music and theatre at Fringe
• letting Fringe be Fringe with clearer expectations
• honesty about fear, therapy energy, and stagecraft
• outdoor recording, nostalgia riffs, ads and video stores

Subscribe, tell a friend, and drop a comment: is Fringe in Melbourne better without stand‑up or stronger with it?

CHAPTERS:

00:00 Cold Open, Hiatus Jitters
02:20 Fringe Festival Becomes The Topic
06:00 Words, Rubbish, Collingwood Rant
10:30 Hypnosis At Fringe And Improv Bias
13:45 Melbourne’s Fringe vs Comedy Identity
17:00 Culture Reset And Lost Zeitgeist
23:00 Competing With The Past, Tech Plateau
27:30 Warhammer ResinGate And Nostalgia Bits
31:40 Security Questions, Names, And Costs
36:40 What Audiences Want: Laughter vs Mission
41:30 MC Energy, Safety Cues, And Agency
46:00 Meta: Podcast, Park, And Validation

Transcript

Cold Open, Hiatus Jitters

SPEAKER_03 0:00

Welcome to Best Frenemies.

SPEAKER_00 0:01

In this episode of Best Frenemies, we talk about our thoughts on Fringe Festival and also the cultural And we and we talk about how we're still sort of recovering from the last episode and you might sort of see how we're kind of still recovering from that.

SPEAKER_02 0:14

Yeah.

unknown 0:14

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 0:15

Just bear with us.

SPEAKER_02 0:16

Uh this is Best Frenemies.

SPEAKER_00 0:23

How have you been watching? Okay, we're live. Welcome to the O'Reilly Factor. This is the no spin zone. Today we're going to be talking about collective bargaining agreements with Employment Minister Dan Tian.

SPEAKER_03 0:37

Dan Hello, I'm Dan Tian. I don't know any of the words you just said, uh, but I don't care because I'm agnostic to reality.

SPEAKER_00 0:44

Yeah, well, uh, we're back after uh hiatus. The last episode was uh featured our dear friend of the pod, uh Mark Oshka, and I think I think he uh did so well that we just had to take a little hiatus, yeah. Take a sabbat, a little sabbat, a little sabbatch.

SPEAKER_03 1:02

Yeah, I had to be like, is this something we wanna do? You know what I mean? Is this the best frenemies?

SPEAKER_00 1:06

Are we gonna get demonetized for me using uh Hebrew words in the first 10 seconds? Sabbatical. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:10

Is that a Hebrew word?

SPEAKER_00 1:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:12

Okay, no, I didn't know that.

SPEAKER_00 1:13

Where did you think sabbatical was from?

SPEAKER_03 1:14

I where do you think the word that is from?

SPEAKER_00 1:17

Well it's sabbatical means sabbatical does mean like taking time off from work, which I'd associate more with like the Greeks or something, so.

SPEAKER_03 1:25

Because the Greeks are known for the time off? Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:29

Uh no.

SPEAKER_03 1:29

Yeah, I don't know. I don't know where words are.

SPEAKER_00 1:33

Southern Italy. Like ask our past guest camuratore, you know, like in southern Italy. Yeah, okay. Uh the bus uh no come today. Uh the bus comes uh next week. Uh or the bus, the bus you want, did it says on this it says on the schedule in uh 20 minutes. No, it did it left 20 minutes ago, you idiot. What you doing? It's related to the word sabbatical. Yeah, I'm just Mark Oshka.

SPEAKER_03 1:55

Hello Mark, how you doing?

Fringe Festival Becomes The Topic

SPEAKER_00 1:56

Just fun where words come from. Um we're currently recording in a park in Collingwood. Yep, and uh I can't wait for Collingwood to get bought by uh Chinese investors and have every building here knocked to the ground and turned into cold grey 20-story apartment buildings that are not filled and are used to launder money for the Chinese Communist Party uh because it would look better, it would look way better than what it is right now.

SPEAKER_03 2:21

He was so excited for it that he was like, I'm gonna say this on the pod. I'm so excited.

SPEAKER_00 2:26

Oh I've said it, it needed to be said.

SPEAKER_03 2:29

Well I'm glad you said it. Do you feel happy and proud of yourself?

SPEAKER_00 2:32

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 2:32

Yeah. You also were complaining about rubbish.

SPEAKER_00 2:34

Yeah, well, that kind of feeds into what I was talking about about this uh um this this uh arse end of the world we're currently recording. Because there's a bit of rubbish around, yeah. There's a lot of rubbish, a little bit of rubbish right next to me, if you ask uh me.

SPEAKER_03 2:46

And then you were like, I relate to my dad, and I was like, uh-uh, I relate to adults in general now.

SPEAKER_00 2:50

We started recording.

SPEAKER_03 2:51

Yeah, we have, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:52

Okay, uh welcome to the show, guys.

SPEAKER_03 2:54

This is the best friend of me's podcast with me, Sharon and Darion, and and uh and I'm uh I'm uh Liz Hayes. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 3:00

Former 60 Minutes journalist. Okay, hi Liz.

SPEAKER_03 3:03

What's it like having once what happened after you left 60 Minutes?

SPEAKER_00 3:06

Uh I um really got into uh uh hypnotherapy.

SPEAKER_03 3:11

Okay. What to deal with your own issues or to hypnotise other people?

SPEAKER_00 3:15

Yeah, I'm not an improv comic, I regret all this. It is the fringe. You know what it is? I got hypnotised during the fringe.

SPEAKER_03 3:20

Okay, so that's actually Did you get hypnotised during the fringe? People said I looked like I was just playing along.

SPEAKER_00 3:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 3:26

And I don't know if I was or not. And I think that's hypnotism.

SPEAKER_00 3:29

Look, I I think I find I think after however long we've been recording for five hours, now it feels like I feel like we've finally latched onto a topic of today, which is that the fringe festival is on. Do we like the fringe festival? I've just I've just caught that's why I'm doing all this improv y, this is why the start's been so weird because it's I'm going, I'm pivoting to alt improv comedy. It's important. Yes, and there are no wrong answers and uh in improv. I disagree. And I've learned that because I have just caught fringe fever.

SPEAKER_03 3:56

Did you do any fringe shows?

SPEAKER_00 3:58

Uh were you in lineups? Yeah, I did uh um uh a Balenko Laloa and Andrew Moore, friend of the pod. Yeah. I did their um I did their show called Freaky Willie.

SPEAKER_03 4:08

Tiny Wheelie, so I went to I was gonna go support. That's how good I of a friend I am. I wasn't even gonna perform, I was just gonna go watch, and then they said don't come.

SPEAKER_00 4:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 4:18

Because I don't I think they had like one person or something. Yeah, here.

SPEAKER_00 4:22

Give it to me. Uh I don't know about that.

SPEAKER_03 4:23

No, give them to me. Yes, and me. It's fringe. It's fringe. Yes, and yes, and hey, I'm Joel. I'm sad and mad. Uh I know sports, but also I know a little bit about a lot of things. I do trivia, I hate talking about it. No, I ha I don't know if I like it or hate it. Uh and my girlfriend gives me the silent treatment all the time, and yes, and I am afraid to approach my feelings and just say that my behavior is fine and you are safe to love me. The um that's I'm I'm safe to be loved. My name is Joel.

SPEAKER_00 4:58

Um this the only reason I caught most of that is because you were pretending to be me. Yeah, I just uh um no, but the the the the silent treatment thing that's part of her culture. She's Russian. Yeah, yeah. So when your your girlfriend or partner or a bet what do you call what do you refer to her as?

SPEAKER_01 5:14

Uh my partner.

SPEAKER_00 5:15

Okay. Um there isn't really a better way of like, you know, I'm to be vague. I mock to be vague. I mock people who refer to them as partners. Yeah. But then I'm like, when you say girlfriend or boyfriend, it sounds a bit weird too. Yeah. So I just don't really, we haven't really landed on a better way.

SPEAKER_03 5:30

Well, people ask me if I ever get will get married, and I say um for my whole life I wanted to have a girlfriend. So I'm like, why you rush me, bro? Like that's my my thing. What do you think of Fringe?

SPEAKER_00 5:44

What do you think of Fringe? Um the TV show? No, the festival. Starring Joshua Jackson.

SPEAKER_03 5:51

Let's make sure we can't. I was we can start again. Yeah, no, we no, no, this is it. This is it, this is the whole thing. Yeah. Believe in yourself.

Words, Rubbish, Collingwood Rant

SPEAKER_00 5:58

Alright, Fringe, I think it's uh it's a bit odd we have a we're you know, most other cities have a a comedy festival or a fringe festival that also doubles as a comedy festival. But Melbourne for some reason has a comedy festival and then also a fringe festival. I don't really get it. I don't really know how that's evolved into that.

SPEAKER_03 6:17

Yeah, look, okay. So here's my logic on the thing. I didn't see much advertising for the fringe outside of comedian. Did you see that?

SPEAKER_00 6:24

No, it seems like it's just invite your relatives.

SPEAKER_03 6:27

Yeah. Do okay. I'm I don't look, don't look, don't look like that. I think what we're going through.

SPEAKER_00 6:36

No, no. Oh, I thought that was urination. The sound, apparently the sound of plastic getting scrunched is very similar to urination.

SPEAKER_03 6:42

Um I think we're going through a cultural reset right now. I think we're still dealing with the ramifications of COVID and the lockdowns. Oh, yeah. And I think that's why like we're just mentally and emotionally stifled. Like we don't know how to participate in out external culture. And with decentralized entertainment, uh, like we're not part of the same zeitgeist anymore. We're not watching the same TV shows, sort of. Like it's barely Netflix. Like we're we're more and more isolated in our own entertainment houses.

SPEAKER_00 7:12

There's no zeitgeist, I like it. Yeah, there's no zeitgeist. I don't like it, but I I you like the concept, you like the word zeitgeist. I do, I do get a kick out of not knowing what the hell anyone's talking to me about.

SPEAKER_03 7:23

Yeah, I don't know anything. You open this podcast with like a hundred things that I knew 30 like 10% off.

SPEAKER_00 7:28

Yeah. And that's more me than you, to be honest. That's more me just being insane, but I think there's genuinely like like someone will just go on about some cult like talk about something like this to them is a cultural phenom phenom phenome.

SPEAKER_03 7:42

Phenomenon.

SPEAKER_00 7:43

Yeah. Pheromone. Cultural phenomenon. Cultural um yeah, and and and and but I'll be like, I have no idea what that is. I don't even know. I wouldn't know how to access that. Uh yeah, I don't I don't know, man. It's it's um but but the the Fringe Festival seems to me like you just you're you know, you just have do three shows and just make sure, just invite every friend or family member you can to come and you don't make any money. And uh yeah, I don't really get the point. Um it's but uh but I've got to confuse this I don't wanna see I I'm I have a s we all have our own likes and dislikes and I don't really like improv comedy and I don't really like spoke, you know, that weird alt shit. Yeah. I find it a bit I don't that all that funny for the sake of being funny is a bit, I think, being abused a little bit.

SPEAKER_03 8:32

It's when it's what do you mean by funny for the sake of funny? Isn't that what stand-up comedy is?

SPEAKER_00 8:35

No, no, no, alt comedy, the whole like getting up there and being like, you know, anti-comedy.

SPEAKER_03 8:41

Did you know like you know what we call comedy now was alt comedy in like the 60s and stuff? Everyone used to just copy each other's jokes and then people started talking about their life and they were all uh v va vaudeville.

SPEAKER_00 8:54

Yeah, vaudeville, yeah. But they were all sort of like, hey, did you hear the one about the Did you hear the one about the the dog and the and the man in the beanie and the guy in the background in front of the mural? That's exactly it would have been told by another comedian and it wouldn't have been And that was the same with music back then too, right? They just a lot of covers.

SPEAKER_03 9:11

Oh well, yeah, a little bit, but covers still exist and are probably okay. No, they're they are okay in music. But a band you can't do cover just.

SPEAKER_00 9:18

But but but no, of course not. But like just music back then, like it wasn't weird to just if you did a song, it wouldn't be weird for me to just do another recording of that song.

SPEAKER_03 9:27

Oh, yeah. Whereas now it would be like As long as it's different, like your version of it, like an acoustic or style, that's what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_00 9:34

But now if I did a cover, it would be like, and I just a lot of people could make a well like do an album of oh yeah, those are Joel's just do it, those are all Sharam Namdarian songs. Joel's just doing Sharam Namdarian for his first album. I could do that. Is all his activity behind us getting picked up on the microphone, or is he arc? It's just you. Sorry, folks at home. Sorry, Sharam-in-law.

SPEAKER_03 9:56

Who doesn't even know um they probably can't. I don't even know what the guy's got to do.

SPEAKER_00 10:00

There's a fella behind us, and it's interesting. Yeah, um, but I mean it's a public park and we decided to do this here, which is insane. So it's on us, really. It's almost as insane as whatever I was saying in the first five minutes, which I really hope you cut.

SPEAKER_03 10:11

Well, no, no, I'll just stroke. We'll see what happens. I referenced it later on. So it's a bit more contextual.

SPEAKER_00 10:16

That was like a test for the audience to like how if you got through that, then true believer.

Hypnosis At Fringe And Improv Bias

SPEAKER_03 10:22

Well, I think it's I think so. Here's my theory on culture right now. I think we're in a culture of not mass-produced, like everything's as consumable as it can be, and it actually has less meaning, I would say, as a result. So we actually need to make it hard for the viewer to participate because they need to actually take a role. You know what I mean? We want to push away the people we don't want. So we want people who want this, whatever this is right now, yeah, it's for them.

SPEAKER_00 10:48

I was just thinking interestingly about the culture is like there's a lot of can you're competing with the past as well now, because yeah, instead of listening to this or watching like last night I watched Conclave.

SPEAKER_03 11:01

Okay, what year is that? Last year. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 11:04

But that was like a big thing middle of maybe early mid last year.

SPEAKER_02 11:08

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 11:09

And I watched it for the first time last night, and I'm like, oh wow, or like you know, I'm just whatever, you know, uh what it doesn't matter what I felt about the film, but I watched it and like that's like uh maybe 18 months ago was like the thing. Yeah, that was like the memes and the it was of the zeitgeist. So now instead of watching whatever's of the zeitgeist now, whatever that is, like probably in terms of movies like the the new DiCaprio film or the that Emma in terms of films.

SPEAKER_03 11:34

Not even really. Like Tron is out and people are potentially See you saying that, I'm like, what? Yeah, exactly. Like we're all in different universes.

SPEAKER_00 11:41

Is that the one with Julian Anderson?

SPEAKER_03 11:43

Uh it's just the one with Tron. Oh does that answer your question? No, not even a little. Um it's a classic movie. I don't know, where Tron is.

SPEAKER_00 11:53

You mean the one with I don't know who Julian Anderson is. I've seen I'm not don't don't paint me with that brush. I know what Tron is.

SPEAKER_03 12:01

Okay, well, yeah, like I I get with what you're saying, because I think culturally we're in a world where now more than ever we actually have all of all most of recorded culture to reference.

SPEAKER_00 12:13

Yeah, yeah, and we've gone.

SPEAKER_03 12:16

Like we're not really make something new. Do it now.

SPEAKER_00 12:20

We've also entered a weird place where like even though you watch something from that was recorded say 20 years ago, well, we that's 2005. So a lot of old stuff that might have put you off watching it because it's a bit grainy or a bit shit, now we're entering this era where it's like even stuff from like 20, 25 years ago still looks alright. Yeah. I find that with like sports highlights, like you, you know, I'm a sucker for like old Formula One highlights. Oh, I can't. If you go back and watch like highlights from the 2003 because you're like cargo zoom and you're like fuck what?

SPEAKER_03 12:53

Or is it Formula One, right? You're just watching, I don't know, I don't know cars, like what is it excites you about the old Formula One highlights?

SPEAKER_00 13:00

Like anyone who's into anything, you just watch old, you know, you're into fucking, you know, gaming. You're like, I don't know, I don't know, man. That's always a weird, that was a weird tangent. I was on a roll there and you read it.

SPEAKER_03 13:11

Okay, keep going, keep going.

Melbourne’s Fringe vs Comedy Identity

SPEAKER_00 13:14

Nothing is yes and crap. Is it over? I don't know, but basically I'm saying that you the the really interesting point I was trying to make before I was rudely interrupted was that you watch something from 2003, you're like, ah, I mean you can tell it's 2003, but it still looks good. So I don't know, maybe I'm less inclined to be like, oh, this looks shit. You actually I think that the further we head into the future, the more we're the more and more we're gonna compete with things from the past, not just because there are there's more past, yeah, but just because the past isn't as shit. Yeah. Like compare it, like say someone in the 50s is looking back on something from the 30s, they're probably like they're looking at a painting.

SPEAKER_03 13:53

Yeah, and they've only got that painting.

SPEAKER_00 13:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:55

And it's like, oh, we got a new painting in on the boat.

SPEAKER_00 13:58

30 people died. 2025. I'm looking back 20 years, and I'm basically it's all on YouTube. I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 14:03

Yeah, it's all on YouTube. You have accessible, it's all piratable within 30 seconds. No, you do have a point. Well, here's my other thing as well. Like, we used to get excited by technological advances, like, oh, these new graphics are out. Oh, we can make photorealistic movies. Look at this stuff. Yeah, and like I think Warhammer is a good example where they've gone through a generational thing of they used to be the really old Warhammer models that I'm holding it the wrong way. It doesn't matter, it doesn't matter.

SPEAKER_00 14:26

It'll it'll capture your thing. Everyone's gonna be commenting about that.

SPEAKER_03 14:28

They're like, oh no, it's backwards, where? So Warhammer, right? They had the old models that were made in uh metal, and then they moved them to they were hand sculpted. When they moved to 3D sculpting, that became there became this higher fidelity, and they got to the highest fidelity they could. There's no like they can't add more detail without it being impossible to paint or whatever.

SPEAKER_00 14:49

I'll never forget the day. I'll never forget where I was. That was my 9-11 when they changed from uh metal to 3D.

SPEAKER_03 14:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:58

That was that was like Charlie Kirk getting shot. They call it resin gate in the Warhammer community. ResinGate.

SPEAKER_03 15:08

By the way, that was the original premise of this episode. Okay, let's talk about how much.

SPEAKER_00 15:11

Yeah, I know you were dying to pivot when you started trying to shoehorn Warhammering up the stuff.

SPEAKER_03 15:15

Yeah, and you're like, so this episode is about fringe and how apathetic I am. No, that's what you said.

SPEAKER_00 15:19

I hasn't done it. They changed to resin. I remember the headlines. They were like, for what resin? I remember on that Herald Sun. They were like, What what is the re what is the resin for this? And it's like, what is this about? It's like Warhammer uh manufacturers changed from metal to resin. I'm like, and I threw down my newspaper and sma threw the coffee against the wall and had to apologize to my family. I'm sorry I get angry, it's just that have you seen the news? They've changed the Warhammer from steel to resin. I mean fuck.

SPEAKER_03 15:52

I uh I see what pewter did there. Uh because the actual metal was pewter.

SPEAKER_00 15:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 15:58

Just so you know. So that's fun.

SPEAKER_00 15:59

Warhammer, barely newer. Yeah. Uh but yeah, go on at what at the start of the Well that's it, that's really it.

SPEAKER_03 16:05

Like, how much more detail can we add?

SPEAKER_00 16:06

So there's no new generational excitement. Make a I know we this podcast is kind of becoming a podcast about a podcast. Yeah. We'll do it. I feel like we're still recovering from Oscar Gate.

SPEAKER_03 16:22

Why are we recovering? Because you know, we can just not mention it and then.

SPEAKER_00 16:26

Okay, for us it's been a month. Yeah. But to the listener, it's been maybe half an hour.

SPEAKER_03 16:32

Yeah, because they binge watched the one with Oshka.

Culture Reset And Lost Zeitgeist

SPEAKER_00 16:35

Yeah, your father-in-law has um traumatised. He's but he's gone, he's watched that Oshka episode, now he's like, well, on to the next one. The boys are prolific. We they've part they've gizzed out another episode. Yeah. And here we are, just still like it'd be weird for the listener, the binge listener, the binge watcher of um whatever the name of this pod is, I forget. But basically, I uh, you know, to just go to next episode and they're like, la la la la. No, we still have to, for the for the benefit of the listener, we still have to sort of sort of just bathe in the in the funk that we created for ourselves last episode.

SPEAKER_03 17:05

Okay, so there's two things I want to say. First of all, I think you sucked at life coaching me. I'm just gonna review that. Oh yeah. Uh your whole thing on helping me figure out my name. Uh I think you were just trying to find out my porn star name, which, by the way, I had to cut out. Do you know why I had to cut that out? Um because I realize you dox yourself. Like.

SPEAKER_00 17:22

I doxed myself.

SPEAKER_03 17:23

No, me. As in when you do your what's your what's your what's the street you grew up on? What's your first dog? Though do you know what those questions are?

SPEAKER_00 17:31

Oh, they're security questions. Security questions.

SPEAKER_03 17:33

I cut out that whole bit because I'm like, what is this? It is so funny, but I'm like, oh, we're dumb. We're so dumb. I should have figured that out on the actual episode.

SPEAKER_00 17:42

Yeah, but though for those security questions, do you like I sometimes give because of that fear, I give fake answers, but then the key is to remember. Like, so my mother's made a name. I don't actually put what it is, I go, oh, it's Smith. Yeah. And I but the problem is I don't have to remember or like your first concert. Have you ever had that one first concert?

SPEAKER_03 18:01

No, no, no, no. I don't I don't remember the first concert. Um I remember that I got crushed in it. As then there was a mosh pit or something, and there was a push, and then I got like a whole bunch of people fell on me and bit my leg in a weird way. Um That was my first concert.

SPEAKER_00 18:18

Yeah, what what was that like Barber Stry Sand or something?

SPEAKER_03 18:21

No, it was a cool underground uh I can't I don't know if it's not really uh a concert though, is it?

SPEAKER_00 18:27

At what point does a gig become a concert?

SPEAKER_03 18:30

Uh when it's music involved.

SPEAKER_00 18:32

So like but like a bigger room. So we're across from uh what what is that? There's like a there's clearly a music venue.

SPEAKER_03 18:39

Yeah, dust record launch party. Don't they know the culture's dead? What does everyone make?

SPEAKER_00 18:43

Sound merch, shout out. Sound merch on the corner of Peel Street and who gives a shit street.

SPEAKER_03 18:49

Um uh Hey Sound Merch, sponsor us.

SPEAKER_00 18:51

Sorry, I'm using the colonial names. Peel was probably the name of like the governor in the 1880s.

SPEAKER_03 18:57

Anyway, keep talking. Um Yes, and you're gonna be. Sorry, yes.

SPEAKER_00 19:00

No, we are on the lands of the um the Coolin nation. So, okay, keep talking, keep talking, we can do this. Well, oh yeah, I'm just saying, so like you go to that, are you going to a gig or a concert?

SPEAKER_03 19:10

I think I'm going to a concert. A launch party. So I I feel like what they're doing is they're connecting with each other, they're saying, hey, we launched a song.

SPEAKER_00 19:18

Yeah, you've missed the point. But basically, if I go to as like a some my mates are in a band and it like just in some garage and there's like 20 people or like the you know, the gem in co in Collingwood, the gem, um, the gem bar on Wellington Street, like that's very small venue, but they have you wouldn't say it's a concert.

SPEAKER_03 19:35

Like, is there if there's a band playing? I think it needs that a concert.

SPEAKER_00 19:38

No.

SPEAKER_03 19:39

Yeah, because it's real small. But you just said if it's music Well, I know that's what I was I think that's a good clarification. I think it could be a tiny I think it should count as a concert if it's a real fucking smaller.

SPEAKER_00 19:50

If I say um I you know, you say you're uh you know you s swiped her out and you met someone's I'm gonna take you to a concert. Yeah, they think you they they think they're dating Frasier, you know, um as in the show. They're like, oh, I better br dress up, we're gonna see Annie at Regent Theatre, and they take you to Dirty Secrets to see like some Underground Grunge Band. Some underground grunge band. Yeah. You s you said that like you're a like a Labour politician.

SPEAKER_03 20:16

No, I'm saying that because I met an underground grunge band person who was scouting out the venue for their for their concert.

SPEAKER_00 20:23

Yeah. And I was shocked because I was shocked that bands existed. I feel like you agree that it wouldn't be a concert and you're just disagreeing for the sake of the algorithm.

SPEAKER_03 20:32

Uh why? Because disagreement gets beautiful.

SPEAKER_00 20:36

You're hunting for the thumbnail. Choke me down for the thumbnail. You're hunting for the thumbnail. The thumbnail. And like the oh, okay. Jesus.

SPEAKER_03 20:46

And the title is Fringe Festival. Yeah, the title is How Joel Came for the First Time.

SPEAKER_00 20:52

No, I'm kidding. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 20:53

Um anyway, we did it. We came up with the thumbnail.

SPEAKER_00 20:55

I hate that's the that's the I've got that that's got into my um vernacular recently, that I'm joking. I hate it.

SPEAKER_03 21:01

I'm joking, I'm joking.

SPEAKER_00 21:02

I don't say like that. I just go like, yeah, I say something that's clearly a joke, but I go, ah, I'm joking. I hate it.

SPEAKER_03 21:07

Like because people don't understand that you're joking?

SPEAKER_00 21:10

No, it's sort of like a um a a nervous tick almost. It's like I say something that's clearly a joke, and if they don't, and it more to the point, if they didn't get it was a joke, yeah, I'd be like, fuck you, then come on, I'm joking, but I still go, ah, it's joking. That's interesting. I think it's bad for me because it shows a lack of confidence. Yeah, and it's patronizing to other people because they're like, yeah, I know you're joking, fuck you.

SPEAKER_03 21:31

So can I yes and that? Okay, so I have a working theory with comedy, is that the thing you do to make a joke work is the thing that the joke was missing. So I don't I think you're actually very smart and intelligent to say that you're joking. It implies that in those everyday conversations, people you recognize people don't understand that it's a joke, so it needs to be more obvious. So that's what you're actually doing. You're actually trying to say, Oh, I need to make this more obvious. Like I saw I one of my favorite pastimes is commenting like the dumbest jokes just to piss people off on Instagram. So there was one, it was a chart about immigration in Canada, and it went, it was like and it was like the latest was like 24 million times. I comment, I'm sorry guys, I've bit I've uh immigrated and been deported from uh Canada 24 million times this year. Sorry, it's my bad. Okay. It's really obvious because it's so absurd. And I think that's my way of saying, I'm joking, guys. I'm joking, it's just a joke. Like, I don't think you're wrong to point out. I think you're very smart and capable, and you should love yourself more.

SPEAKER_00 22:32

Uh-huh. Oh, is that it? Okay.

SPEAKER_03 22:33

Um we're the best frenemies. Uh subscribe.

SPEAKER_00 22:36

No, I I I'm just disappointed you're making light of a serious issue like uh immigration. Anyway, um What are your thoughts? I think it's uh great. More immigrants in the country, uh, more people paying tax can lower the tax rate.

SPEAKER_03 22:49

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 22:50

I'm real pro-immigration.

SPEAKER_03 22:51

Is that oh I was expecting I was expecting some. That's not that is actually responsible.

Competing With The Past, Tech Plateau

SPEAKER_00 22:56

That's the uh right wing argument for I'm not a right wing, I'm just saying that's the right wing argument for immigration.

SPEAKER_03 23:01

That's what like that's the pro that's the right wing pro-immigration argument.

SPEAKER_00 23:04

More people in the country, more taxpayers, lower tax.

SPEAKER_03 23:08

I have not heard that before.

SPEAKER_00 23:09

But they don't lower the tax. They, you know, it's like uh remember the do you remember the Alco Pop tax?

SPEAKER_03 23:14

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 23:15

Yeah, like the late 2000s, Kevin Rudd. They like they said, oh okay, we're gonna um tax, you know, Alco Pops, mixed drinks, uh, and then but then I think in the budget the revenue forecast was like higher. As in like long story short, they were like, oh, we are st we forecast that this will make this tax will make no difference other than give us more money. So it's like that. It's like that's actually yeah, that makes sense. So when we get more people in the tax rate will go down.

SPEAKER_03 23:41

It's like that doesn't they but the forecast does not match the actual.

SPEAKER_00 23:44

Yeah, they're like, ah hey, yeah, like look at that, immigration's going up. So I guess you'll lower the tax rate now. No, of course not. We just we we just want more money.

SPEAKER_03 23:51

Because they get more money, like why would they be incentivized to drop it? Not unless the economy then s suffers and fails in some way.

SPEAKER_00 23:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 23:58

Like everything's like I went out yesterday and I did a normal day. Like, as in I bought some like a clothes.

SPEAKER_00 24:05

What's the normal day in the life of Sharum?

SPEAKER_03 24:08

Well, as in like a normal day like five years ago. So I had lunch with my family, because it was my sister's birthday. Uh, went to shops and I bought like a thing.

SPEAKER_00 24:15

I went to a pharmacy, bought another thing, and then I've just gave away another security question, your sister's birthday.

SPEAKER_03 24:20

Well, we don't know what day it is. Don't mention the day. Okay, fair. No, sorry. Also, I've never had a security question that I've done.

SPEAKER_00 24:27

He doesn't even have a sister.

SPEAKER_03 24:29

Yeah, jokes on you. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:32

Specifically you. Good one. We mean you. We really mean you. We do mean not the royal you. Yeah, no, we're talking to you. I'm so if they if they really need um if the young blokes and one thing by um blokes and um if you really need um. Yeah, man, 100%.

SPEAKER_03 24:57

Um it was very important.

SPEAKER_00 25:01

It sounds like this. I wish we both knew the second language. Because we could speak, then we could speak that in front of the.

SPEAKER_03 25:06

Oh, yeah, but the whole day was expensive. Can you put a caption up?

SPEAKER_00 25:09

You can put a caption up as to what just happened.

SPEAKER_03 25:12

It's not the Oshka podcast.

SPEAKER_00 25:14

But I need to then ex I now need to explain what with what just happened.

SPEAKER_03 25:17

I'm leaving it all in.

unknown 25:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:19

Do you understand that?

SPEAKER_03 25:21

Do you understand that my life is too easy to edit? I can text you. You want to edit?

SPEAKER_00 25:25

No, I can text you the caption.

SPEAKER_03 25:27

Oh, okay. Just text me the caption and I'll put it in there.

SPEAKER_00 25:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 25:30

And I'll do a tiny bit of editing.

SPEAKER_00 25:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 25:32

I'll do one editing. One editing is greater than zero editing.

SPEAKER_00 25:36

Please, Chinese Communist Party, get some of your developers into Collingwood, get them to buy it all up, and let's let's fix this place. Let's let's fix Collingwood. Um You're not gonna edit it?

SPEAKER_01 25:50

No, no.

SPEAKER_00 25:51

Except Dirty Secrets. Leave that. No, no, no, leave that. But they're at the rest, like, you know, especially um what are some of the comedy shows I don't like?

SPEAKER_03 25:58

You don't like most of the Grub?

SPEAKER_00 26:00

Get rid of Grub, Grouse House, I think it's called. Um, what's the other one?

SPEAKER_03 26:04

Why do you not like gigs?

SPEAKER_00 26:06

Well, which ones?

SPEAKER_03 26:07

I don't know. You just I like them all. Put me on. See? I'm pro me.

SPEAKER_00 26:11

Pro gigs, put me on, I'm pro. No, I mean I I don't like the ones that perfor you know try to do something that isn't uh that isn't comedy, you know. Raw comedy, like well, I'll just I thought the whole point was was supposed to be uh having a laugh and I having a laugh. And I find most audiences actually want to have a laugh.

SPEAKER_03 26:29

Yeah, that's why they're there.

SPEAKER_00 26:30

Yeah, but then I th feel like um the comedian, the people who run these gigs are so afraid. Everyone's afraid.

SPEAKER_03 26:38

Dude, everyone's afraid. Everyone's scared and everyone's afraid, everyone's scared.

SPEAKER_00 26:42

No one's willing to uh Yeah, they're all just scared one person's gonna talk to the manager and be like um Yeah, then you start another gig. Yeah, sure. But okay, well if that's the case, then what are we all worried about? Start another gig.

SPEAKER_03 26:55

But it's hard, I guess. That's the whole thing. Like it is hard to start.

Warhammer ResinGate And Nostalgia Bits

SPEAKER_00 26:58

No, I just don't like when some some places are stuck in 2017 and think they're on some sort of it's not just about comedy, it's about some sort of mission. Like, no, we're trying to we're not just trying to make people we're trying to make people laugh, but we're also trying to make people learn as well. Yeah, I relate to that. And it's like, what are you talking about? Like everyone just everyone's so confused. And and the audience is scared, but then when when people get up on stage and go, oh hey guys, everything's gonna be alright. And then it that makes the audience even more like, oh, is there a chance that it won't I've seen it, I've seen it, I won't I won't name names, I won't name names. Um, but there are I've seen it happen. MCs going like it it's gonna they get up there, the audience is a blank canvas, you can steer this ship anywhere you want, yeah. And it could the MC gets up there and goes like hey guys, don't worry. It's like we we weren't worried until it's we weren't worried until you said don't worry. If you just got up there and fucking went in on it, and you know, like So there's a Friedrich Nietzsche quote that I love. Daddy say his name.

SPEAKER_03 27:56

What how would you say his name?

SPEAKER_00 27:57

I I don't I never knew, I just I mumbled it. I'd be like, how I'd say Nietzsche.

SPEAKER_03 28:02

Okay, Nietzsche. Oh maybe it is Nietzsche. Friedrich Nietzsche. Uh in the absence of God, man is left to find meaning in his own existence. So when you are the comedian or the the MC or whoever, you are the god.

SPEAKER_00 28:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 28:15

So you're telling them this is the world that you live in. And so it's like it's safe, it's safe, guys, it's safe. And like, admittedly, some audiences are do feel unsafe, so they do need to hear that. Like, I think there's merit in everything, but a lot of- There's merit in everything. Yeah, there's merit in everything. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:30

That's my me that's actually the name of my mental as anything cover band. Merit in everything. Okay. Okay, that wasn't worth it.

SPEAKER_01 28:36

Um what were you expecting? A crazy life.

SPEAKER_00 28:39

Well, you I thought you were just mocking his. There's a guy coughing behind us and. No, that was me, I just coughed. Yeah. Oh. Yeah, I'm allowed to. Sounded like you were mocking him.

SPEAKER_03 28:45

I was trying to yes and his cough with my own. Sorry, go on.

SPEAKER_00 28:47

You were saying how uh it's good to be woke.

SPEAKER_03 28:50

I think there's merit in everything, but I do think um, yeah, like if you're genuinely saying you're afraid when they're not, or you're safe to laugh when they already felt safe, you're creating a disconnect. Because they go, Well, we knew that, now you're communicating that it's terrible, and I'm primed for to look for that.

SPEAKER_00 29:07

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've seen it happen a couple of times where at EMC I'm like, what are you doing? Why are you scaring the audience? You're making them scared. Not in a like not I don't mean scared like oh you are you scared them like you told a r risque joke and now they're like, oh no, you you made them like you made them sit like this. It's like you made the like I hate it when friends come to watch me do comedy because they're all worried I'm gonna bomb and they maybe I do, but the problem is that mentality made it's like a self-fulfilling prophecy. You basically so basically you've just turned the entire audience into my friends watching me because it it's the same effect of all sitting there like, uh oh, is he gonna say something bad? Is he gonna say something awful? Is he gonna say something awful? And probably out of context, we are gonna say something kind of awful.

SPEAKER_03 29:52

Yeah, probably.

SPEAKER_00 29:53

And uh but not like I don't mean because now everyone's gonna think like, oh what, you you think it's okay to just go up there and say the N word and all this? No, I don't think that.

SPEAKER_03 30:00

But here's what I think. Alright, let's joust on this. One of my grand theories of life is everything's therapy until it's not. So we're not necessarily Therapy is a balloon. Yeah. Therapy is a balloon. Um so the point of the what I mean by that is like like for example, I've got a few jokes that I'm like, oh, this is edgy. I've seen people who are fantastic going, this is edgy when it's not. And until you work that out, you're gonna be communicating subtly, oh, are you safe with this? Like, is this okay? You're actually looking for that data. I don't think it's that's why I'm like this merit and everything, because you've got to sometimes let yourself project onto the audience your insecurities so that way you can go, wow, I was crazy.

SPEAKER_00 30:42

Yeah, I'm getting a little bit better at going like, alright, but yeah, it's just I don't know. I get it. Like it's hard to have this chat because sometimes people will interpret this as me going like you can't say anything, which is not I don't believe that. I'm just sort of like I I I don't know, I just I can't remember.

SPEAKER_03 31:01

But you gotta be able to transmute it. How do we say you're aware? I don't know. Well this whole premise of this episode was how much Wyoming Charm have, and now it's about fringe ventures.

SPEAKER_00 31:08

What episode number are we up to?

SPEAKER_03 31:10

I'm not counting.

SPEAKER_00 31:10

Okay, I whatever I count. Whatever we're in, this isn't this is a 0.5 episode. Yeah. This is like a we're getting back off the canvas episode. Yeah, I think so.

SPEAKER_03 31:19

I think it's good to be off the canvas.

SPEAKER_00 31:21

I worry is the was did was We should talk more about the podcast. Was the park a good idea?

SPEAKER_03 31:26

Um, I think it is. Last time it worked fantastic.

SPEAKER_00 31:29

Well that's what I mean. Maybe we just remember the one time it worked and we're like, you know, maybe we secretly were hoping Camura Tore would walk past again.

Security Questions, Names, And Costs

SPEAKER_03 31:36

Oh yeah, maybe that's what you've been hoping. You keep mentioning it. He's a great guy.

SPEAKER_00 31:41

I think he's in Japan.

SPEAKER_03 31:42

I think you want this, you want validation from the audience. Please comment. Tell Joel, is this a good episode?

SPEAKER_00 31:47

I want an audience.

SPEAKER_03 31:48

An audience? You want one audience?

SPEAKER_00 31:50

Yeah, it'd be nice if we had an audience that could validate us.

SPEAKER_03 31:52

We have an audience who's behind us.

SPEAKER_00 31:53

Oh yeah. Don't don't make eye contact. Yeah. Um If Collingwood was a person who's behind us. There we go. He probably heard that.

SPEAKER_03 32:01

Can you hear me? Anyway, so Fringe Festival, what I found interesting was when I did the hypnotist show, when you hypnotized the show. What's interesting was that they had an audience. Yeah, because it's so yeah. Because maybe that's fringe. Comedians trying to cram comedy and everything.

unknown 32:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 32:19

It's fringe, let it be fringe. Yeah. Just let it be fringe.

SPEAKER_00 32:22

I almost banned comedy from it. I'd be like, no stand-up comedy at fringe.

SPEAKER_03 32:26

Yeah, not unless it's your favourite improv or whatever else you said is you hate.

SPEAKER_00 32:30

Improv, music, uh clown. Musical comedy. What other types of comedy are there? Um those are the big that's the unholy trinity. That's the axis of evil.

SPEAKER_03 32:41

Clown is your stand-up comedy transmuted into actions.

SPEAKER_00 32:45

Which you really like that. Transmute.

SPEAKER_03 32:48

Transmute means transferred, translated, harnessed. It's uh alchemy.

SPEAKER_00 32:53

Transmute lives matter. Um good job. Um just it's funny. Like, you don't, you know, that would be a good way. Uh mute? No, that would be a good way to like, if you're like a trans person who's been silenced, I've been transmuted.

SPEAKER_03 33:11

Into not speaking.

SPEAKER_00 33:12

No, no, just like you know, just like, yeah. Uh.

SPEAKER_03 33:16

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 33:16

Anyway.

SPEAKER_03 33:17

No, I get what you're saying. I did a uh I rhymed uh uh was it departed with farted today? I was pretty proud of that.

SPEAKER_00 33:26

Does that account as a rhyme when there's an extra syllable?

SPEAKER_03 33:29

Yeah, because it is it depart and fart. Yeah, that counts.

SPEAKER_00 33:32

Depart and fart. I mean it works.

SPEAKER_03 33:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:35

Uh what are your thoughts on French? The departed. That sounds like a good sketch. The departed, yeah. It's just it's just it's literally just the departed. Yeah. But they're just every between every line is just pfft. Well, it's like it's like, what are some of the famous lines from that? Like uh, you know, like uh getting married is a good idea. You know, no one thinks you're gay anymore. You know, or like what's another famous line from the departed?

SPEAKER_03 33:59

I don't know, I haven't seen it, but I let you I want you to know that our audience member has walked out of it. We are back down to zero.

SPEAKER_00 34:05

Yeah, you know when he says like this isn't reality TV, okay. When I tell you to throw someone in the marsh, you throw them in the marsh. Yeah. Yeah, it's the departed. So that you can have that SNL.

SPEAKER_01 34:18

Okay. The defarded.

SPEAKER_00 34:20

The defarded. Just get Joel in it for one, though. And it and it's the music, you know, the you know the uh the fucking what's the the the what's this what's the band? I don't know. I don't know. Um I don't know. The dropkick Murphy's back. Shut up, the dropkick. The dropkick Murphy's. The dropkick. You didn't even try and help me there. The dropkick Murphy's and the song is Fringes Over instead of a violinist, I can't I can't do it.

SPEAKER_01 34:42

It's what's do this on stage today. But uh The Departed, but it's the departed. Departed. And that's your that's your set.

SPEAKER_00 34:56

But I need someone You can have that if you want.

SPEAKER_01 34:59

You know it. I don't know departed enough to do it.

SPEAKER_00 35:01

You know the music though, the d-d-d- But it's farts.

SPEAKER_01 35:05

Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_00 35:06

That's the clip for the show, by the way. Just that. You're not even gonna clip it?

SPEAKER_01 35:11

No, I don't know. I don't know if any of this is clippable.

SPEAKER_00 35:14

Look, this has been a world where we needed this is the recession we had to have this episode.

SPEAKER_03 35:21

This is the I think this is a cultural reset for this episode.

SPEAKER_00 35:24

We needed a reset. We had a this has been a rough episode. Let's be honest. It's been fun.

SPEAKER_03 35:29

Yeah, it's been fun.

SPEAKER_00 35:30

I think it's been above average. It's been interesting, but I'd say the first 10 minutes I was just like, I try to I I got the I got the fringe bug. I caught the fringe fest bug and I was trying to improv. I don't know what I was doing, folks. But I've been I w I did a gig, I I I've I've done a couple of fringe gigs and I just the fringe bug has caught me. I and I just want to clown it up, man.

SPEAKER_03 35:50

Yeah, good. Which you're trying to transmute your words into action.

SPEAKER_00 35:53

Look at this, watch this, watch this.

SPEAKER_03 35:55

You're miming it. That's a mime! That's not a clown.

SPEAKER_00 36:00

But like, dude, I'm just I can't help it. I can't help myself. It just comes like it comes out of me. Just the fringe festival is I am the fringe.

SPEAKER_03 36:09

You are fringe.

SPEAKER_00 36:10

Yeah, the TV show.

SPEAKER_03 36:11

Yeah. Uh the word defaded or whatever comes from I was singing a song about how my girlfriend was kicking me out of the house. Is she? No, despite the fact I was leaving to come do this podcast, but I was singing a song because I thought it was really funny.

SPEAKER_00 36:27

Imagine if I just was so confident that she's kicking me out of the house, I was like, Oh, about time, actually. I was gonna say fuck that bitch, and you're like, oh no, I was just kidding around, dude.

What Audiences Want: Laughter vs Mission

SPEAKER_03 36:35

Yeah, that's fine. Yeah, yeah, but she ha she doesn't like it. And that to me, there's humour. She doesn't like it when I'm going, you're kicking me out, despite the fact that I'm leaving to do a thing.

SPEAKER_00 36:44

You can't find me, I quit.

SPEAKER_03 36:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:46

And she's like What is she sorry gone? Yeah, what does she think of what? This podcast? Yeah. The fact that you were in the middle of a lovely Sunday afternoon, we you chose this over her.

SPEAKER_03 36:56

Okay, so let it be known.

SPEAKER_00 36:59

But the record show.

SPEAKER_03 37:00

We have spoken uh probably 50 to 40% in this episode about the episode. That's I do think we need to pump those numbers up. We need to do a whole meta episode where we just discuss the podcast itself. Uh what she thinks is she's happy with her alone time. She wants me to get out. She's actually really happy. Please leave. I need to be by myself.

SPEAKER_00 37:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 37:23

Uh we I am very loud, I'm very demanding sometimes. Uh, and I can be very annoying, you know this. And also, we live in a tiny place. So she needs the space. Sometimes I like it when she's out. I'm like, thank god, now I can just lie in bed on my phone for hours without judgment. It's beautiful. It's introversion time. I'm an extreme introvert. Did you know that? I recharge in silence.

SPEAKER_00 37:44

No, I'm just watching everyone who walks past just stare at us. Like, yeah, there's a lot of people like the fuck is wrong with you two.

SPEAKER_03 37:50

Yeah. It's a what do you call it? A cultural cultural depression, right? I don't want everyone just walking.

SPEAKER_00 37:56

I don't think this this setup in the park, this is as charming as it may have been like three years ago, like put just immediately post-pandemic, people like, oh, what's good? What's this about? Or during the pandemic, it'd be like, Oh, they're doing something in the park. Now it's just back to being kind of like, what are you doing?

SPEAKER_03 38:10

So there's like a couple podcasting studios near me that we could hire. You can take a photo.

SPEAKER_00 38:15

Yeah, we're really famous.

SPEAKER_03 38:17

Yeah, we're we're so famous. We're so famous, we're in the park.

SPEAKER_00 38:22

He's getting emotional now.

SPEAKER_03 38:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:24

Sorry.

SPEAKER_03 38:26

I like the outside podcast. I like the raw nature. I think that's like very of the times. You know, it's like like it's not like I don't I think it's very American to be big budget, high, high production value. I think it's very Australian to be like, we're we're just we're making do with what we've got. We're not afraid to try, but at the very core of it, we provide quality. And I think that's what we like. I think we like quality at the core of things. Things don't have to be fancy as long as they're single origin, artisanary. Uh it's a sandwich from it's good, you know?

SPEAKER_00 38:58

I think that's what we feel like an Australian flag needs to drop behind you while you're making that artisanal bread. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 39:05

We love artisanal bread, and that's what this podcast is. It's the best friend of me's podcast. It's the artisanal bread of comedy podcasts. I bet you haven't laughed the entire time.

SPEAKER_00 39:15

Were you a oh maybe it defarded? Defarded was good. Were you uh were you a video easy guy or a blockbuster guy?

SPEAKER_03 39:21

I liked blockbuster video mostly because I liked the shape of the logo. What were you?

SPEAKER_00 39:26

I was a video easy guy.

SPEAKER_01 39:28

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 39:29

Because in East Ring Ring Ring somewhere. Well, that's who cares. East Ringwood, around where I lived, uh uh there was a a pr uh uh a sort of a private one, a mum and mum and pop kind of thing, mum and dad store. You know we don't have that term here. Like salt trader, whatever. Called uh Video I think people understand. It was called Video 1000, and we used to Mario's Video, I think it was called in East Ringwood.

SPEAKER_03 39:51

Name is familiar.

SPEAKER_00 39:52

And then uh Oh yeah, because you're sort of Yeah, because I lived in that era, yeah. And then um uh it was along the East Ringwood shops near Ringwood High School.

SPEAKER_02 39:59

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 40:00

Cool. Great stuff. And then we uh uh then they be Shout out to Mario and then they moved, they became a video easy, so we s loyalty stuck with them.

SPEAKER_03 40:09

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 40:09

Shout out to Mario wherever you are right now.

SPEAKER_03 40:12

I um I had Lilydale Market. It was a blockbuster video there.

SPEAKER_00 40:18

Oh yeah. Okay. Well my when you say market, you mean like a mall. Yeah, well it became like a regular shopping centre, but it they just call like Lilydale Market. I gotcha. I gotcha. Um Yeah, I mean I liked I remember once renting a video from Mario and it was like um I forget the film, but basically you put it in, and at the very start someone had um rec clearly like they'd used it to record an AFL game. Oh I think and just for like one second, I remember the I remember the play, it was Winston Abraham, former Fremantle footballer, spinning the ball in his hand, and and then it went to black and then it went into the trailers before the movie, and I was like, it's just very quaint, it's something that stays in my memory.

SPEAKER_03 41:00

Yeah, I get that. I love that that stays in your memory, I think.

MC Energy, Safety Cues, And Agency

SPEAKER_00 41:03

Like just you put you press play, I don't know what I'd rented, probably some trash kids, you know, movie. Probably a Jonathan Taylor Thomas vehicle from the 90s, like like man of the house, I think is what it's called, Jonathan Taylor Thomas and uh Chevy Chase and Farah Fawcett. I I rented that and that that's like the type of I'm not sure if it was that film, but it that was the sort of the ilk of film that I'm talking about here, and I put it in, press play, and then yeah, for the first one second, it was just an AFL player holding a football looking for his next pass. And I didn't know. I put a defining form memory of the child, and I couldn't tell what the score was because this was the 90s, and they didn't put the score in the corner of the screen like this was simpler times. You had to wait until they showed you the scoreboard when someone kicked the goal. If someone didn't kick a goal for like Well, that's how they got you to stay and watch.

SPEAKER_03 41:48

Yeah, if someone did yeah, because you yeah, otherwise now we're in a yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:54

Keep talking. No, no, it's just it's fascinating. No, you the gilded age we live in now where they keep the score on during the ads.

unknown 42:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 42:02

You're watching an ad and still in the corner, there's like a watermark with the the AF the score from the game you're watching still there. I mean, you know, we are in good this is we are in good times, people.

SPEAKER_03 42:12

Are we in good times? I thought the whole thing we're talking about, how it was a cultural regression.

SPEAKER_00 42:16

I'm just saying that like you can watch, you're like, ah the ads are on, but I can still see the score.

SPEAKER_03 42:22

Here's beautiful one last thing. I reckon TV ads.

SPEAKER_00 42:26

Is this the last thing? Yeah, because we've got to wrap up TV ads I'm kidding.

SPEAKER_03 42:31

In the good old days, I think they designed the ads. As in like they were like add one, ad two, add three, add four. They designed the sequence to make it interesting and then. Oh, I hate you.

SPEAKER_00 42:41

You don't mean okay, go on, sorry.

SPEAKER_03 42:42

Yeah, that's it. I think that's what they did. And you see modern ads on like whatever, like prime, and you're like, this is us.

SPEAKER_00 42:48

This is terrible. I mean, firstly, I thought you meant like the ad the company said, okay, we want this ad to be third. You mean the TV show.

SPEAKER_03 42:58

They had like certain sequences, like it'd probably have like I like There's probably a job.

SPEAKER_00 43:02

Like an ad order guy. I'm I'm an ad order guy. I've I'm vice president of ad ordering.

SPEAKER_03 43:07

And they're like really into it.

SPEAKER_00 43:08

Yeah, he just sits there with like he's like like looking at this board, yeah, and someone's about to knock on the door of his, and they're like, No, no, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_03 43:14

He's working on it.

SPEAKER_00 43:15

Yeah, don't bother him.

SPEAKER_03 43:17

And he's like, the first ad is an ad about like sandwiches.

SPEAKER_00 43:20

He's trying to work out if the Pizza Hut ad goes before the Toyota ad. But it's important. Yeah. I reckon that's important. Do you remember how the ad for the next the the that you knew the ad sequence was ending when the the sh next the ad for one of the shows on the channel? Yeah, yeah. You'd be like, oh, the ad sequence ending. There were things. Yeah, you'd be like, oh, they're advertising the Sunday movie. So that's how you knew the ad was about the the the commercial break was about to end. That's how you knew to press record again.

SPEAKER_03 43:45

Well, do you know how I know we're definitely in the cultural regression? You know that ad where it's like, I just want milk that tastes like real meat and only 2% fat? Those guys are playing it again on YouTube ads. Oh, we got 2%. Well, you know that one, you know what I'm talking about? Yeah, I know the world.

SPEAKER_00 43:59

Uh she fat shames him.

SPEAKER_03 44:01

Yeah, she fat shames him. And then she's gonna be. But it's okay because he's a guy. Yeah, because and it was the it was the times.

SPEAKER_00 44:06

Yeah, you can do that. You can do that to people.

SPEAKER_03 44:08

And they've just changed it. It's like milk that still tastes like real milk. And because they just can't think of maybe anything better.

SPEAKER_00 44:16

Imagine now, like, oh, we're gonna redo it out, but we're gonna make it, you know, progressive and stuff, so it's a woman, it's like it's like a trans lady gonna buy milk and it's like, you know, I don't know, uh, go, go, go, an Israeli a Jewish guy, a Jewish guy, a Jewish proprietor. Just shaming the trans, like only two percent fat. Uh I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 44:38

Yeah, and they're like, but it's fine.

SPEAKER_00 44:40

I don't know what see, I've got the fringe bug, but I'm not a I'm not a fringe comedian.

SPEAKER_01 44:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 44:45

Okay. I'm terrible at these these theatre sport games. I can't do them. Like, give me an idea. Um, trans customer, Jewish proprietor.

SPEAKER_01 44:54

Yeah. Uh I'd like to buy a set.

SPEAKER_00 44:56

This is why I don't do the fringe festival, because I I can't do it. I'm just immediately like, um, trans Gaza, Hezbollah, Trump. You're like, Sir, this is a Wendy's. Maybe I am an improper. Yeah, you did it.

SPEAKER_03 45:09

Yeah. Um, okay, so let's conclude this episode because we'll wrap up and go to the bombing so hard. What do you think of the fringe festival? I think it needs more effort, more love. I think it's a good concept. I think it just needs more effort, less, more, more fringe stuff. We need to promote. We it just needed I think it just needed to be promoted.

SPEAKER_00 45:27

I think no one knew about it. I think stand-up comedians should just leave it alone and leave it to the clowns, the improv comics, and the uh musical comedians. Let them have their fun. Uh, this isn't for stand-up comedians.

SPEAKER_03 45:38

And I look at it Unless they're doing weird fringe stuff.

Meta: Podcast, Park, And Validation

SPEAKER_00 45:41

Yeah, I mean, like, you know, for instance, uh uh Joseph Green, right? He's sort of a clowny, he has a clowning background, right? So he might do I'm not saying a stand-up comedian, but if you don't do stand-up, you do you pivot to oh I'm doing clowny stuff this yeah, no, I'm just saying I look at I think we look at fringe festival through a stand-up lens because the Adelaide Fringe Festival and the Perth Fringe World or whatever they call it, they are also comedy festivals. Yeah. But in Melbourne, fringe is a completely separate thing that should just be the remit of clowns, improv comics, and and musical comedians.

SPEAKER_03 46:15

Okay. And the final question is are we friends or are we enemies? Is that the question I asked?

SPEAKER_00 46:22

I think are we friends or our enemies, then I answer it.

SPEAKER_03 46:24

Yeah, so are we friends or are we friends yet or are we still enemies?

SPEAKER_00 46:28

Uh off the record, we are colleagues and uh on the record. Did I say off the record first? On the record, we are sworn enemies.

SPEAKER_03 46:39

Okay.

unknown 46:39

Cool.

SPEAKER_00 46:40

That wasn't funny. That's the end of the episode. I'm not an improv comic.

SPEAKER_03 46:43

Okay. Um Happy Fringe. Okay, before we end it, let's start do the introduction part. We're like, welcome to Best Frenemies.

SPEAKER_00 46:49

In this episode of Best Frenemies, we talk about our thoughts on Fringe Festival and also the cultural and we and we talk about how we're still sort of recovering from the last episode, and you might sort of see how we're kind of still recovering from that.

SPEAKER_02 47:02

Yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 47:03

Just bear with us.

SPEAKER_02 47:04

Uh, this is Best Frenemies.

SPEAKER_00 47:09

I think that's a good intro.